Proves they are useless?
If only Apple sell tablets, and all other tablets are fine, which broadly they are, then it means (certain) people want Apple bling, not tablets.
The phenomenal sales success of Apple's iPad shows no sign of abating, but sales for all other tablets competitors are stagnating and channel inventories are building. US tech titan HP is the latest to correct its prices, trimming £50 off the cost of a TouchPad in an effort to get them shifting, with the 16GB and 32GB versions …
"If only Apple sell tablets, and all other tablets are fine, which broadly they are, then it means (certain) people want Apple bling, not tablets."
Only the top of the range models from other manufacturers are broadly similar. Most of the cheaper offerings are nowhere near as good. It's actually very hard to find something that isn't actually rather poor *unless* you spend a lot of time investigating first.
This means that most 'average' buyers are looking at the ipad and deciding "too expensive", then looking at the cheaper alternative and going "yuk". They then either buy the expensive or give up and buy a laptop instead.
Obviously there is also a large-ish market share of people who do just buy apple anyway.
Your argument is: if you assume there's nothing wrong with the product then there's something wrong with the consumers.
I'm as surprised that Apple is staying ahead as anybody, but couldn't it just be that the glut of new tablets and the besmirching of Android's name by some very awful no-brand tablets are preventing decent tablets that make 'Android' a big part of the pitch from picking up momentum quickly?
I'll be more surprised than anyone if Apple's share still isn't significantly reduced a year from now.
I have a cheapo Android tablet and it is so bad I never want to try one again. Except I have seen the Apple product and it shows what they can be like. We definitely need an open alternative to Apple, just like the PC is an open alternative to Apple lock-in. What happened to the Windows Mobile in the tablet world? Why is Apple the only one that's any good?
q: What happened to the Windows Mobile in the tablet world?
a: Windows what?
q: Why is Apple the only one that's any good?
a: because they don't make cheap plastic toys with cheap plastic screens.
You wrote yourself. You have a CHEAP Android tablet. Stop comparing a 200UKP product with a 600UKP product. It would be truely bad if the 600UKP device was indeed worse than your cheap tablet.
Also Apple has the music- and moviebusiness in it's pocket. They have a vast library of the passive consumer content that Google just hasn't got. Plus the device is targetted for simplicity. It's the ideal replacement for the bedroom or the kitchen TV. While Google doesn't clearly define what Android really is. Is it for a computer? Is it for a phone? Is it for a mediaplyer? Or is it merely a handheld webbrowser?
so people dont want tablets they want ipads hum er a ipad is a tablet its the same thing as all those other square thingys. you wont be seeing me getten any apple tablet or phones etc. oh yea the real reason why apple has blocked the galaxy tab is because they dont like the competition and the fact the galaxy tab is thinner than the ipad hahaha, il pass on anything apple
Having just bought a bottom-of-the range Archos 101 tablet for a mere £150 (just dropped from £200 at Carphone Whorehouse), I'm happy as a badger in a pile of worms. It's not fancy, and the viewing angles are a bit tight, but it's great for 90% of what tablets three times the price actually get used for.
The problem is that most of the other tablets are too close to the iPad in price. The iPad is still seen as the tablet to covet, so any competitors need to be coming in with something of similar quality but at a significantly lower price. Otherwise, most people are simply going to stick with what they've seen most of, and get an iPad.
Personally I'm tight and my 10" gen2 Hannspad with custom Rom is doing me just fine. For the princely sum of £127.49. As far as I can tell it does everything that a Tegra 2 based Fondle Slab should and I'm not even fussed about it being fatter than an iPad or that it only has an 8 hour battery life.
I think this is going to run the same course as netbooks. They all started out using Linux, and so were not particularly useful for most people. Once they started shipping with Windows then they found a broader audience. So next year when we have Windows 8 Tablets then non-Apple tablet sales will increase, if the price is reasonable.
This has got nothing whatsoever to do with the masses wanting an ipad. All these tablets cost around a third of their selling price to produce. All this tells us is that the only fools willing to pay over the odds for their tablets are those who have been infected by the jobsian cult.
When the iPad first came out I recall people being surprised that its price was so low given the cost of its components; seemed Apple wanted to jump start the market instead of make their usual hardware profit. Maybe the cost of these components has come down but I'd be surprised if an iPad-like tablet costs only ~$150 to produce.
Where did you get your numbers from? Does it actually have anything in there for marketing? Did the design just come up at no cost? The cost of components are not the cost of manufacture, and Apple's leading device, the iPhone is probably responsible for the largest parts of Apple's profit margins as they get full retail from the carriers for every one sold.
More to the point. Amazon isn't allowed to sell iPads, only the scammers and third parties put iPads on Amazon as the actual company has no agreement with Apple to sell the iPad. This is why the sales charts on Amazon are not the place to go when trying to work out how well the iPad is selling because they don't there.
Has iPad2 32GB wifi +3G for $729 add tax to that and you get to about $760 depending on your locale. The BOM is fairly widely available and varies by only a few dollars, the number I quoted came from slashgear, and the percentage profit Apple makes is widely available as they have to report their company results. As to marketing costs, I have no clue, but I doubt it could make up anywhere near the difference between the BOM and the retail price.
I don't want an iPad (and i say that as a Jesus Phone owner), I want a decent Android fondleslab for under £300.
Sounds like they're heading in the right direction - if anybody thinking of buying a non-iPad tablet of fondlesom joy can hold off for a while, just to ensure they drop the price by another £50, that'd be grand.
Cartman: Okay, wifi plus 3G, 64 gigs. This one, this one!
Liane: Oh, sweetie, $900?
Cartman: I can't wait to see the look on Kyle's stupid face when he sees my iPad has more memory than his!
Liane: Eric, we can't afford that one.
Cartman: Well you don't expect me to get the wifi-only 16-gig version, do you?
Liane: I think we need to get you a different brand, hon. They're a little cheaper.
Cartman: Mom, everyone knows that everything but Apple is stupid!
Liane: [sees something interesting] Here, look at this one. A Toshiba Handibook.
Cartman: Toshiba Handibook??
Liane: This says it does everything the iPad does, at half the price.
Cartman: Mom, do not screw me over again! If I take that thing to school, everyone is gonna think I'm a poverty-stricken asshole!
Liane: Eric, stop acting like a spoiled brat! You can either have the Toshiba Handibook or you can hae nothing at all!
Cartman: [looks at her for a second] Oh, I've got a better idea! Why don't you go across the street and buy some condoms?! Because we should at least be safe if you're gonna fuck me, Mom!
"Ironically, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 would have challenged Apple in terms of size, weight and specs, ...."
no disrespect, but no one outside of tech circles has ever heard of the Galaxy Tab. The word synonymous with tablet devices is IPAD.
People who want a tablet I see fall into 3 categories.
Technical people: such as reg readership (who will buy devices purely on capability and technical merit).
Then you have Joe/Jane Public with £700 burning a hole in their pocket
Then Joe/Jane Public who dont have £700 to burn.
Give any Joe/Jane public a choice of tablets FOC and I'd say 99% would choose IPAD.
Its fashionable, its simple, its been marketed perfectly by Apple- much to every other manufacturers disgust.
I cannot see any tablet gaining as much popularity as the IPAD until something easier or more fashionable comes out, or has its own "must have niche."
I think the "Joe/Jane Public who dont have £700 to burn" are by far the mass market and so the most important market and its interesting that they are now the most important segment of the market that is fueling the very rapid growth of Android phones, as some Android phones are much cheaper. So it means once Tablet prices really come right down (and they will) then its likely Android tablet sales will really start to take off big time.
For example, now I have a smart phone, I find myself often using my phone to quickly lookup stuff on the Internet rather than go to the hassle of booting up my PC. But the one thing I would like at home is a bigger screen than my mobile has. So a tablet laying around at home would be very convenient for quickly looking up stuff. :)
So for me, the price is the only thing holding me back from getting one ... for now. :)
Its the old economic supply and demand curve. Currently tablets are priced at the premium end of the market, but as soon as their prices come down (just as the mass market of lower spec mobiles are now doing), then demand will inevitably shoot up which will in turn lower manufacturing costs allowing even lower price points to become possible as it accelerates towards a mass market. Which is good news for everyone who wants cheap technology. :)
1) Mass market = low profit
- incidentally this didn't stop many from the "mass market" to buy ipad/iphones.
2) A phone <> a tablet
- noneteless the rapid growth of Android phones is nothing compared to iPhone's market penetration. Especially considering the profits made on Apple products while e.g. HTC has already a 5$ COST to microsoft on every Android device sold.
3) You described a distinct use for the thing (occasionally surf the web without the hassle of a computer). For that single use you're obviously not going to spend 700UKP (which is a perfectly sane reasoning). But the majority of ipad users perform many tasks with their device, many of these tasks replace their desktop PC needs (email, surf, read books, media consumption, entertain the kids at restaurants etc...). For their diversity of use an iPad is a much better device than a desktop or laptop computer.
- as is proven by another el-reg reader. iPads excel in their simplicity especially for generic consumers (and infants).
I predict that in time there will be a divide between consumers and creators. Tablets and low-en notebook/netbooks will be the mass-market computing products for passive consumers. While desktop computers and high powered notebooks will be for the ppl in IT-production process (e.g. secrataries, accountants) and/or creation (e.g. gfx-design, webdesing, software development). Apple has the best position for the passive consumer market because of their ties with music- and moviesuppliers and unrivaled the success of iTunes-store as a passive media-selling portal. Even today iTunes makes more money from music then from apps but I agree that the apps are more in the spotlight these days. Due to many tech sites "reviewing" every jackshit app on it. Even El Reg does it.
Which imho it shouldn't. ElReg is European it should put European tech at the forefront and not US-tech. But every day there's either an iOS or an Android app that gets reviewed while native European technoly gets neglected. It's a goddamn shame!
Your arguments are circular, inconsistent and difficult to follow. Nevertheless, I do understand where you are going. The point where I believe you are seriously wrong is: "Apple has the best position for the passive consumer market because of their ties with music- and moviesuppliers and unrivaled the success of iTunes-store as a passive media-selling portal." Barring some cataclysmic head injury with an inability to differentiate between a slice of toast and a polar bear with hemorrhoids, I doubt I will ever admit that the cogital abortion known as "iTunes" is a positive in any world.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Don't forget that, unlike desktop PC's, tablets are phallus symbols. Just like cars. Ppl buy them to show off. Apple is Bling. If you can afford an iPad then you're with incrowd if you can't then you're a loser.
So do you wanna be with the incrowd or not?
I think one of the reason tablet sales might be a little disappointing is because the tablets themselves are a little disappointing.
At a conference recently an analyst said in order to sell a product against a dominant force you can't just be different, you have to be much better. The current crop of tablets aren't bad, they just aren't much better than the dominant brand.
Even the Mac, though it was far better than WIndoze, was not ENOUGH better to overcome the lowly PC. I was a PC user for many years before going mac. The FACT that Mac had it all over the PC only afforded Apple the ability to SURVIVE when literally EVER OTHER competitor was driven completely out of business.
You mean to say that every other competitor was driven INTO business, right? Apple Mac competes against HP, Dell, Toshiba, and so on. If the IBM-compatibles market (i.e. PC) didn't exist, we'd not have any of those businesses in any sort of business.
Unless you're attempting to make a trite and ignorant comparison between Apple's OSX and Microsoft's Windows. In which case Mac didn't survive at all, and had to go 'borrow' open source to get a working and compatible system.
It is easy to figure out why. Most people who buy tablets have them to show off with and not to do any real work on and if it's about showing off then your not going to want anything but an ipad.
This just leaves a few people who are not interested in showing of who have a need for something small on the go to buy a tablet that isn't an ipad.
> Keep telling yourself that, while we all use iCloud,
> beam to Apple TV, and integrate totally with all our
> other iDevices.
Why should you need some 3rd party on the Internet to deal with basic file sharing duties that 68K based Macs were doing quite effectively before Microsoft even had a suitable version of Windows built?
I have seen people use the iPad in a very useful way. Customer loads it up with all his documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Because the unit its held in the hand like a book it's at the perfect viewing distance. Because the screen and graphics are so powerful it is a breeze to zoom and scroll and turn pages. He can hand his client the iPad to show him the document.
Obviously it's better to prepared the documents on a machine with a keyboard but the usability of iOS compared to Windows put's Windows to shame.
However I refuse to be a Fanboi and want them to fix Android or Windows Mobile or something so I don't get sucked into Steve Jobs Brave New World.
Given Apple's lead and its large application eco-system, it was quite predictable that HP's TouchPad - based on their own WebOS and for which nobody's developing apps - would not sell. Even with a $100 discount. But is a bit more difficult to understand why Android-based tablets have not sold well either - after all, the Android app market is starting to be bigger than Apple's. I think the problem with Android vendors is, perhaps, one of sex appeal (or lack thereof) and usability (or lack thereof). The only Android tablet that comes close to Apple's iPad - or even exceeds it - in either of these categories is the Samsung 10.1 tablet...and Apple is doing its level best to sue it into oblivion. Other Android tablets are too chunky in girth or have underpowered user experiences, I think.
Finally, there's price: Apple has always charged a premium for its products. Android tablet makers have been trying to charge the same price as Apple - for products that aren't even as good as Apple's. Why would *anyone* pay an Apple premium (for material, design, user experience) without getting these benefits? The only way Android tablet makers will succeed meaningfully against the iPad is to sell it at a meaningful discount - e.g. for $399 (vs. Apple's $499)...or offer something substantially better.
Thomas, where'd you get the idea the Android App market is getting to be bigger than Apple's?
There are still only a couple of hundred Android tablet apps versus over 130,000 iPad apps.
Of course scaled-up phone apps just don't cut the mustard and even if you do count them, there are still far fewer Android phone apps, 45% of them are spamware and there is still only 10% the number of top tier game apps on Android.
Also Apple does not sell the iPad at a premium. Remember when the entire industry was shocked when Apple introduced the iPad at half the $1,000 they were expecting. Well competitors are still struggling to beat Apple's price particularly when they have to put in twice the amount of RAM because Android is far less efficient at using RAM than iOS.
Then there are Apple's enormous enconomies of scale and headlock on component supplies and you wonder why no-one can compete?
-Mart
Everyone knows that it's all just about the name, the brand, the image and not what can or can't be done with it.
It's a premium consumer brand, like Audi or BMW, Dyson, etc.. There are other cars, that are just as good, sometimes better and also cost less, but people like a premium badge.
Unless you are in the know, you won't entertain anything but the perceived leading brand.
I have an iPad 1 that I got when Apple did the £100 off thing and I can't see what any of the new tablets would give me over it? Flash? Why do I need flash?
Flash? Why do I need flash?
In order to properly view flash heavy websites whilst surfing on the sofa and avoiding whatever the dominant half may be currently watching on TV. Only having played with a iFondle for 20 minutes or so some time back at a mates house Im not sure if it renders flash heay sites properly or not but its definitely a reason for wanting flash.
You're right about the badge thing though.
I'm not a fan of flash heavy websites anyway. In most cases it's style over content IMHO. And with more and more people viewing the web on their phone/tablet, who really wants to wait for a flash heavy site to load and then fiddle round with it on a touch screen? And a lot of the functionality Flash is used for can be accomplished with JavaScript or HTML5 which degrade more gracefully on devices that can't handle Flash. I'd rather miss out on a bit of icing than not get the cake at all!
No, it's about far more than that. People are upgrading from iPod. Perhaps you have heard of it? LOL. And no-one, but the die hard techno geeks want anything with a "WINDOZE" badge on it. No longer, those days are OVER my friends.
You will see Apple go to 50% marketshare in the near future.
Apple's approach to applications — sandboxed and with very low permissions — should make it easy for suitable tools to spot any malware that comes along and basically prevent any propagation of trojans, which are the predominant threat everywhere nowadays. Apple have also started pushing OS updates on the desktop to eliminate malware where it crops up, suggesting they're at least taking the problem more seriously than they were.
I therefore don't expect serious malware problems on iOS.
I would imagine there may be more problems on Android because Google publish the code, meaning that you can determine what has been fixed from version to version and hence what vulnerabilities did exist previously, but a whole bunch of handset vendors then fail to pass the updates on to users. But if a real problem arises the market should be able to provide a solution because there's no walled garden, so I don't expect it'll have a major impact on Android's continuing fantastic adoption rate.
Why should I want a less capable tablet than the £200 Linux Acer netbook I purchased 2 years ago and which I'm posting this on ? The Android tablets I've seen are either around the same price but lacking essentials such as networking ( or dare I mention keyboards ?) or of similar capabilities but at twice the price. Apple's products are in a different class, as these have buyers who regard them as the Rolls Royce of the product category - and are willing to pay premium prices compared to most potential users.
They don't actively try to prevent people from running OS X on regular PC hardware, they just don't go out of their way to make it easy. There is a thriving Hackintosh community that seems to exist more or less with Apple's blessing--if they wanted to tie OS X to Mac serial numbers or add other stumbling blocks it doesn't seem like it would be that hard for them.
On a fondleslab, and this applies to decent Android variants as well as the iPad, you can be reading this site in less than a second from picking it up off the table. With a netbook, you have to switch it on, wait for it to boot up, click on the browser shortcut, wait for it to load up, then you can go and visit El Reg.
That's because Windwos is bloated.
I've been playing with Ubuntu 11.04 recently (after seeing it on a friend's PC) and I've been very charmed. I've installed it on a spare Dell PC that i had lying around (AMD dual core, ATi HD4350 videocard etc..) and I was pleasantly surprised. it boots up real quick. The desktop just looks gorgeous. It has all the productivity tools that a "user" really need (office suite, webbrowser, emailclient, skype etc...). Is very userfriendly (in fact installing and uninstalling apps is easier than on windows). I even played with proprietary drivers and removed them later as the inbuild drivers were faster than AMD's stuff. All this went very smooth and without any hassle.
In fact yesterday I was recovering data from a crashed Windows XP PC. A dual core E7400 PC with NVidia 9400GT gfx card and S-ata HDD and copied his entire music directory with this Ubuntu-linux in about 10 minutes from one partition to another. I usually take some puppy-linux for such a job but I decided to try it this ubuntu. Ubuntu was ran in Live-CD mode and to my surprise everything worked out of the box even gfx-card accelleration, networking and audio (just like it did on my spare Dell PC at home).
After I re-installed windows XP (the person insisted that I install WinXP) I copied this My Music directory back into his user-area and it took more than 25 minutes using Windows XP file manager!!!
That was a shocking experience. If Linux continue further at this rate then Microsoft might have some real problems in the future to sell Windows 8.
Sure it took over 8 years to reach this state. But this is really good. A fast OS with all the tools required to get the (small) job done. You don't even have to install it. But is you do.. Oh man. If only Windows was like this.
For good or for bad, Apple customers are prepared to spend a lot of money on Apple gear.
If you want to attract people away from the iPad, or attract customers who would not buy an iPad, you're going to have to be really, really good on price.
429 quid for a 32GB slab/pad/panel/tricorder/whatever is not in any way cheap.
I would imagine they will continue to position it exactly where it is now...as a successful e-book reader. Speculation is rife but it would seem likely that any tablet based product will be at a price point much higher than an e-book reader but presumably lower than an ipad and if the current ecosystem proves anything, it is that two such very different products can happily coexist - after all Amazon already sells the ipad and that hasn't troubled Kindle sales. The point of the comment was Amazon are the one brand I can think of with a chance at breaking into a market that is currently monopolised by another brand - they have proved they can deliver a good product at a price people are willing to pay and by supporting that product well they have developed a high level of customer trust. And no I don't work for Amazon.
..good job too. Who would want to match 'functionality' that restricts file transfer from SD cards or USB drives.
If Apple let people use an iPad as a functional device - rather than a toy (which it is by the way) - then I would support them. But at the moment it's still a toy.
Things might change now that Google snapped up Motorola.
this means that at least with Google's phones won't need to put a condom over your head to make a phone call. Of course you can always put the condom over the phone :-)
Just kidding. Anyway. Let Apple win this round. Sure after a few years everybody is sick of them and then someone else steps in. It's always the same. I believe the saying goes:
1: All "good" things comes to an end!
2: When you reach the top, the only way to go is down! (Nokia experiences this first-hand today and Microsoft experienced it in 2008 with the dead of Windows Mobile)
Lousy headline. People want iPads rather than HP touchpads would be nearer the mark. Tablets that cost near to the iPad price point will struggle - but many, better spec'ed tablets (usb, hdmi etc.) that are significantly cheaper (and many are) are selling. Take a look at Amazon.
They are the only potential competitors with the content and the vertical integration to match Apple — they also have an incredible platform from which to launch. If they launch then I expect them to coast into second place almost immediately and then to put up a pretty decent fight.
I wanted a tablet. I wanted something that I could use to browse theb web, read email, watch YouTube and BBC iPlayer (and play on a TV screen sometimes.) I wanted it to connect to a PC and have removable storage, I wanted it more portable than a laptop (so I could use it on a train) and have a few hours battery life. I wanted it to cost less than a netbook / laptop. So I did not want an iPad, because I am interested in what it does, not what it "says about me." I found what I wanted for well under £200, and with a USB keyboard for office / home use at less than £12. Judging by the number of reviews of my tablet (and others) on Amazon, (where I am guessing the vast majority of buyers do not bother to write a review) I am far from being alone. So yes, people who want a "Pad" of some sort will buy an iPad. But people who know what they want a tablet device for might be stupid, like me.
Non-apple tablets can be half the price of the iPad and they still wouldn't have the software ecosystem available.
As console manufacturers realise, its all about the software. Apple came along exactly at the right time, now they're a fucking steamroller you can't hope to go up against.
Personally tablets don't appeal to me they offer me nothing I can't do on either my phone or laptop. If I bought one it would just sit in a cupboard gathering dust. However saying that if I did buy one it would not be an ipad, I would probably get a galaxy tab. But like I said tablets don't appeal to me so doubt i'd ever buy one.
> Since I bought an iPad my netbook has been
> sitting in a cupboard gathering dust. Have not
> turned it on once since.
Since we bought an iPad, we've still needed to lug around the netbook to do those occasional tasks that an iPad intentionally refuses to do. It's not that it can't do those things. It's just not allowed.
It's terribly silly really.
Oddly enough, I've seen the household iPad fan do more and more iPad-y things on her desktop or netbook lately. Perhaps the initial glamor is starting to wear thin.
The use that I can find for an iPad (I don't yet have one but don't believe I can hold off the inner gadget demon much longer) is the use that I currently have at home for my smartphone (ex-calls/texts), and that is to sit on my arse on the couch watching TV and be able to casually look up something/read an article/online shop or allow the kids to play games on. It's easier than going to boot up an i7 for web surfing and the touch interface is intuitive for young kids. A smartphone also gets irritating due to size limitations very quickly.
I don't know if this might be a bit too DIY/hackerish to have on the Reg, but perhaps not as they have covered things like Hackintoshes before (if I remember correctly):
Would love to see a review of the decent budget Android tablets available at the moment (like the Hannspad mentioned above). I would (somewhat arbitrarily suggest) that the criteria for selection would be: sub-£200; capacitive touchscreen (unless resistives have lately become quite usable - idk); comes with a decent Android version or the community have provided a good custom ROM which can be applied without performing TOO many technical back-flips (hence the hack-y bit); usable spec (ie not ones that are a constant reminder of your lack of funds); no huge obvious flaws that render them unusable.
I'm fairly sure they're out there, and would be attractive/useful to many, but nobody wants to burn ~£180 on something that might turn out to be a turkey...
I've just bought a Viewsonic Viewpad 10s for just over 200 Euros. It is directly equivalent with tablets sold under several different brands and can be flashed with ROMs from popular forums. I chose the version without 3G and GPS, as I don't need these features but it comes with HDMI out, a 10" capacitive screen and a 16GB microSD card included. They didn't include the USB male-male cable that is needed for flashing though.
Similarly I just bought a Viewsonic Gtablet, The stock firmware really sucks the big one but I have flashed it with a version of the notionink adam ROM and it works beautifully. 1.5GHz Tegra 2 CPU 512Mb RAM with 16GB internal storage and another 16GB microsd. Works very well despite Viewsonics best attempts at screwing it up.
HP make tablets now? Who knew? You couldn't have picked a worse example if you tried.
I'm not seeing this surplus. I got a Transformer the other week.. sold out nearly everywhere - I had to travel quite some distance to find one. The local currys said they were selling them as fast as they got them in.
Another that's being fairly heavily pushed is the blackberry thing.. too small for my tastes but you can't move for someone pushing it these days.
The prices *do* need to come down - there's space for a lower specced tablet (lose the HDMI, keyboards, etc.) at the £200-£250 mark that'll clean up. At the moment it's all early adopter stuff.
Apple win because they develop one tablet (a year) and one major OS update a year, everyone gets the tablet update at the same time, granted the old tablet might not get all the functionality but they still get an update. People accept this as a good deal, the Hardware vendor might charge a bit more for the device, but they don't forget them the minute the greenbacks have been handed over.
Android tablet vendors? The name of the game seems to be rattle out 2-3 new tablet models a year, maybe deploy an OS update, maybe not, and even if you get an OS update its probably 1 behind the all new and improved soon to be released OS which wont work on your (what appeared to be brand new) technology.
I'm not bitter though, I've got a perfectly functional iPhone 3GS, a tweaked and tricked up Galaxy Tab 7" with 3G, and my financee has a ZTE Blade with custom firmware tweaked for battery life.
Tried to compete at the same price point, they needed to seriously undercut the iPad in terms of price whilst maintaining a similar level of performance. Failure to do this has consigned a whole generation of reasonable to very good tablets to the electronics equivalent of remainder stores.
The Android tablet wave didn't really start until with honeycomb, so only a few months old - a lot of the cheap crap tablets were either too expensive or too underpowered to really compare.
Now I can easily and cheaply write apps that run on my phone and my tablets. With the arrival of Android Basic everybody is going to write stuff for this.
Look,
Some people buy because they are lemmings. Everyone has an iPhone or an iPad so they want one too.
Others look at price vs functionality.
If you could build a better tablet that is as thin as the iPad2, works as well as the iPad2 and costs the same... I'd buy it too. The iPad2 isn't perfect and there is still room for improvement.
Like being able to be tethered to your cell so you don't need two different data plans...
So you want something that works like an iPad, looks like an iPad and cost the same as an iPad? I think you want an iPad!
Oh sorry I forgot, you don't want it to BE an iPad. You just want an iPad with a different name. Samsung it is then! (That's a joke btw!)
Haters make me as sick as fanbois!
"I just want to be different!"
I ended up with an iPad by 'default' (unwanted gift I got chance to play with).
I've always had apple products, so if that makes me a fanboi so be it, but review wise, here goes...
I wasnt convinced I'd want it. I had a MacBook, and I had an iMac. Big screen for at home, laptop for out and about, why would I want another gadget?!?! But within 20mins of playing with one I 'got it'.
A tablet is a different thing, the same, but different. Instant on, light weight, good battery life. You start to use it in a different way than a 'real' computer. 1) Media playing, 2) That quick question on wiki/IMDB 3) Weather, News. 4) Social media. Those occasions where you need at the internet or something for 60seconds. But a real computer takes longer than that to wake up.
And as the iPad has that weight of software behind it, the masses of people who can show it off to you, the accessories, the brand, and yes it does 'just work'. (For the things you're allowed to use it for) but for the masses and me... Its ideal.
All you sprogs out there are going to come to a rude awakening around the age of 43 or sometime nearafter. Near eyesight begins to wane, visual accuity fades, you can no longer read your phone device in less than perfect lighting conditions and/or without reading glasses.
The 10" device format Apple decided upon is a clear indication that they understood that those of us who have passed the "geekdom" stage and just want working devices have reached middle age and economic independence.
Geeks on The Reg for the most part fail to grasp physical and economic realities and are driven by the same obsession that led to the infamous quote that "a turntable was just a convenient device for measuring rumble" (old guys will get it).
Dweeb
"or something for 60seconds. But a real computer takes longer than that to wake up."
Not really.
Timed with a chronograph 39 seconds to cold start (power up) a Windows 7 PC with the SF1200 solid state disk and i3-2100 on S-ata2 port (full boot including antivirus, printerstartups etc...).
An AMD X2 7550 equiped Dell inspirion 546 with ATi HD4350 videocard and 2GB DRRII ram boots up Ubuntu linux from it's WD 500GB blue HDD in 42.5 seconds also measured from power up (including BIOS screen) to full desktop.
I think that's not bad. For todays PC's
As much as I like my iPad, it is and will remain for the foreseeable future, a media consumption device.
It's great for accessing websites, reading books, magazines, watching stuff etc. etc. but the failings of touch entry still annoy me when trying to enter data. Quote a post on a forum and then try to edit the quoted text? The press and hold to bring up the select/copy etc. option and then the slug slow speed of dragging that selection box down in order to highlight the text you want to select in a scrollable div panel is painful and makes me want to reach for the unavailable mouse if not a keyboard each time.
I see no demise to the humble PC be it a desktop, laptop, netbook etc. - whatever, there is and will require to be, the need for a keyboard and mouse...
its great for what it is though ,and people in the main are consumers.
It's not my thing - I like to edit video, photoshop, etc so went with the macbook air (now on my 3rd - 2011 i7 11" jobby) - about the size of an ipad, but tons of power... seriously good framework integration with the intel gpu lets me playback 1080p50 (yup - 50p) at about 2% CPU. even encoding is pretty rapid running at around 70% speed of my 3ghz mbp17 core duo... hence its getting flogged and I'm now just down to the one device for all my work* and play.
*parallels takes care of my windoze ibm websphere stack, and runs fast as f**k on only 2 of the hyperthreads.
And again, I have to respectively disagree with people saying the are expensive... an off contract decent android phone will cost you 400+, 400 squid is bloody cheap and easy to use - and THAT is why they are selling - its not brand brand brand - ferraris don't sell like hotcakes even if folk love the brand... cause the average joe ain't got 100k... he's buying ipads because they are good value for money to him. end of.
And if you take the time to actually compare like with like, the airs are a bargain too imho - about 100 quid less than competitors from sony, samsung, etc.
waiting to get marked down for clear fanboi rant... but honestly I'm just a techie looking at the best deals
IMO, a huge benefit buying Apple generally have over any other manufacturer is the level of service they provide in their Apple stores.
I've never a 'fan-boy' of Apple but when I bought an iPhone 3G and dropped it outside of warranty, entirely my fault, I took it into my local apple store and they just replaced it there and then no questions asked, no forms to fill in etc.
It was the 1st time I'd been in an Apple store and I was amazed at the level of service, 1to1 tuition etc going on.
I'd suggest that that level of service is a massive selling point to a lot of people and the other manufacturers have to produce significantly better products or alot cheaper i.e. 50% of price for same spec to convince the general public to go with them if they can't offer the same level of service.
As an iPad 2 user, I have to say that the tablet is great. There are computers all over the place here but I find myself using the tablet for most mundane computing tasks: surfing the web, reading docs, email and photos. Watching movies is also working nicely.
The key success factors is the instant-on functionality, the fact that I can hand it to someone else for a quick review and the Notes+ app that helps me keeping notes. And the ecosystem of apps is better than on Android. I am currently developing an app for kids and making money there will be much easier than on any other tablet. So, why concentrate on other platforms?
When I bought my HTC Desire HD at the start of the year it cost me £385 unlocked. An iPhone4 would have set me back £500. The HD has a large screen and other handy "free stuff" like Google Navigation. You can argue the toss about which device is "better" - HD = crap battery life, iPhone = no USB mass storage mode etc etc etc but put them side by side and the HD is very appealing and I don't regret my purchase.
But the premium Android tablets cost the same as an iPad but don't really offer much more, if indeed anything more bearing in mind how much more developed the iPad ecosystem is.
Asus' Transformer is doing OK at £350 because it's cheaper and different, and I suspect so to will the Asus Slider if the price is right. Archos 1.5GHz Gen9 8" tablet looks a cracker for £200 too.
In short the problem with the Xoom. Galaxy Tab 10.1 and TouchPad is they cost too much and offer too little. I thought that the moment the price of the Xoom was announced. For £250, you bet, for £499? Behave.
I'd say that in 12 months time the likes of Asus and Archos - assuming the Slider, Gen9 etc live up to their pre-release promise, will be doing rather well because they offer genuine differences and a lower RRP than Apples offerings.
Those Android products that don't and aren't will fail. Rocket science it is not.
i bought an android tablet 3 days ago. The Acer 500.
I chose this one specifically for its usage of a standard power adapter as opposed to special docking plugs, the presence of an sd card reader and a usb host and slave port.
Its tegra2 based and works fine. Scrolling is smooth. Graphics are crisp on the led backlit display.
But, now it begins..
Update to 3.1 bricked the wifi capabilties. Try connecting to WPA/WPA2 routers and it fails 99% of the time... you need to fidget around with static ip addresses.
3.2 update ... not yet ...
Ah lets try the usb ports then will we?
Plug it in to a PC... you need a driver to talk to it ... a driver ? seriously ? what happened with mounting as a storage device ? that is bummer.
Now let's try the usb host mode.... ah only keyboards and memory sticks , provided they are in fat or fat32. Drat ! can we have NTFS please so i can use regular laptop drives ?
My idea was to use the usb ports so i could read memory cards and the drive from the camera and back them up to an external harddisk. That way i could do away with lugging a laptop around on vacation. So far for the usability of the USB ports...
On to the software then.
I was kinda sorta hoping there would be the most commonly used apps available. How about an openoffice ? that would be no. Ok, i only need a text editor with spell checker. no. ok can i at least have a spell checker in the email ? No. Seriously ? even an iPhone has a spell checker.
How about some movie editing software like on the iPad ? or a Photo organizer / editor ? No.
So i have a tablet , running an Os full of awkward hidden features buttons ( it took me quite a while to find out how to set the static ip addres sfor a wifi connection. Who'd figure out you need to press down on a connection for a while , then go bottom left to find a little arrow that pops up extra features , and then jump through some more hoops to do something basic like setting an IP address. and then have to reboot the darn thing for it to take actually effect.
The common apps that come with an iPad (text editing, photo/video) are nonexisting on this platform, or are half baked.
the email doesn't even have a spell checker. multiple email addresses are not integrated like on the iphone/ipad. and the wifi sort a kinda works depending the mood it is in...
on the other hand i can run Angry birds for free...
I feel like using it to bang myself on the head with it.. stupid stupid stupid.
Sounds like you're banging your head against a wall. I suggest you take a step back and look around a bit.
Download the patch for that (stupid, stupid) wi-fi problem (unless that's messed up too); and are you looking for spell-check or auto-correction? Check the keyboard options - auto correction is built-in (and maybe hidden)?
Not sure what your problem is with drivers - it took all of 5 seconds to open an 'Internal storage' window. (And vastly better than downloading an 80MB software package just to use it).
As for the rest, yeah, it needs much better apps+support.
Pretty hard to download a wifi patch if the wifi don't work innit ?
Kinda like : No keyboard detected, press F2 to continue ...
I am looking for spell-check. I wan tto be able to write simple text documents ( i don't even need a full word processor ). Save to a text file so later i can copy and paste this into a real document when i get back home. But i do want spell check, thesaurus and all the works !
At least for the ipad you can install the iWork suite. Android ? hello ? It is linux based. Why no OpenOffice ? This is absurd !
My problem with drivers ? I don't want em ! The tablet should expose itself as a standard storage class USB device. Plug it in to a computer (irrespective of what operating system is used, they all support the USB storage class) and it mounts as a drive. I have a camera (videocamera) that can copy data to external drives. Plug in a 'drive' and the camera can copy data. So my idea was :plug in the tablet , camera will detect 'drive' , and i will be able to copy files.
Not... because you need a driver !
These USb classes like mass storage, CDC , HId have been created so that there would not be a need for drivers , and devices would be compatible with each other. Android ? not so ...
Like i said, my ide was : get a tabelt , you can do email , you can write some text documents on the plane, and you can copy files from to external devices like the photo and video camera and on to extenral storage. That is all i need on vacation.
All pretty basic stuff. All i have now is a 400$ thing that can run 'angry birds'. Way to go android. I'll stick to my little netbook with windows XP, since that can do all these things without problems.
Android is simply not ready. The ecosystem is not there. Not that an iPad would do any better in my case. That is unusable since they don't have any usb ports at all. But there at least the apps are way better.
Why does a 5 letter word that is also a fruit make grown men regress? Amiga? Atari? Apple.
Quite simple: it's the user experience and ecosystem stupid! I sneered many years ago at the iPod touch and the iPhone until my Malaysian friend (whose knickers I was kind of trying to get at the time) came over to my house (sadly, no knickers interaction) with her new iPod touch. Like any good sales person she bid me to try the forbidden fruit (still no knicker action. Goddamnit!). A week later I sold my Nokia E71 and bought an iPhone 3G on the secondary market
Years later I once again sneered (spontaneously channelling the spirit of Steve Balmer) at the iPad. Glorified iPod touch. Until once again, the forbidden fruit was proferred and I shaved my head, donned a white robe and was allowed into the inner sanctum of then Holy Apple store on Regent's Street to buy an iPad2.
As cults go, it's not to bad adjusting to a life without Flah - although I do surreptitiously use the Pc for my Riko Tachibana fix.
As other commentators have said, unless there is a significant discount, where is the value proposition for other tablets? I am by far and away much more productive than I ever was on my notebook (Samsung NC10 - lovely notebook, now neglected).
Absolutely agree with the AC 16:16. It's the whole user experience (sadly without Malaysian knicker interaction).
As devices proliferate and information technology becomes as pervasive as oxygen, tech-obsessed geeks and the companies they influence should stop listening to each other and go talk to their middle-aged mothers.
While she might not use the words, Mom could tell them that hardware is incidental to the experience of ubiquitous computing. Beyond the fact that they're required to literalize the metaphor, actual physical computers are irrelevant to the experience of dataflow culture.
Consumers have largely stopped buying devices. What's being purchased is an experience, real or imagined. Apple was founded on this understanding and after a promising start, nearly failed when the corporate fixation on individual products made inroads. They're now experiencing a spectacular boom cycle while the rest of the industry tanks in a worldwide economic bust because they've returned to the understanding that computing is not about computers. (This is also explains why die-hard geeks often loathe Apple with a level of vitriol normally reserved for religious arguments.)
HP is a perfect example of this because their history includes an extraordinary number of remarkably clever devices which went nowhere. They and their ilk fail and will continue to fail not because they produce bad hardware - they've made brilliant hardware - but because they've adopted the perspective of their Aspergers-afflicted engineers and therefore don't understand that almost no one has any interest in buying hardware.
Computer design that doesn't regard the experience as paramount and the physical object as all but irrelevant is doomed because the product _is_ the experience. After all, the various devices are beyond ephemeral, resembling mayflies far more than the game-changing "life will never be the same" revolutions they purport to be.
Never mind the glaring historical inaccuracies, you managed to may a one sentence thought drone on for four paragraphs, with a plethora of sesquipedalians. Good show!
(ok I can't leave the historical inaccuracies alone)
I'm not sure you really ever used an Apple II, or you'd know the inaccuracies of your description of Apple's founding principle. I almost get the impression you think Apple was founded in 1983, rather then 1976.
Later on, you again show a lack of understanding of history, only HP's this time. If you really look at when HP went down-hill, it started when they DROPPED many of the item's targeted at engineers. It has been in decline since shortly Carly Fiorina took the helm, and divested Agilent Technologies (which has been repeating the mistakes of history, and divesting parts of itself lately). Some of the major decisions under her "leadership" where openly opposed by Walter Hewlett. The engineers haven't been at helm of HP for a decade.
I wonder how many people have juicers sitting unused in their kitchen because it is far easier (and probably cheaper) to buy juice from Tesco, I know we have.
How long before all those iPads are doing the same, what are they good for? browsing the net - as long as you don't come across flash. Watching movies - as long as you don't mind spending hours converting the film and then getting tired holding the thing. Really what is its point other than to make Apple even more money.
What can I do with an iPad which I can't do with my iPhone and Laptop, neither of which would be made redundant as a result of buying a tablet.
"What can I do with an iPad which I can't do with my iPhone and Laptop, neither of which would be made redundant as a result of buying a tab"
Sit on your arse on your couch in front of the TV casually browsing. It may not be the most essential of tasks but I tend to do it a lot. Laptop - no, too big, unnecessary power, heats up too much, shorter battery life, not instant on etc. iPhone - a couple of minutes browsing on a smartphone simply gets on my tits. They are so unsuited to the task other than the "out on the road with no other device" scenario.
Think of an iPad as an electronic coffee table item. Pick it up, browse, put it down, see something of interest, pick it up, browse again, etc etc.
I like your juicer analogy (everyone has a juicer or its equivalent abandoned in the cupboard), but I would turn it on its head.
The whole point of the slabs is their convenience.
Yes, I can set up the monitor to my 12-core xeon server to make it convenient to check the weather when I'm still lounging around in bed. But if I want to do the same sitting on the sofa, or outside on a nice day, it is such a hassle to lug all that hardware around, so I don't bother.
Even my laptop presents an activation hurdle: I never log out, so it does turn on instantly, but its physical size, and the need to feed it enough electricity frequently means that it too is somewhat tethered to a few spots around the house.
Perhaps I'm lazier than most, and have more money than sense, but a fondleslab suits my lifestyle just right for all those little tasks.
Life is full of friction, a little bit of lubrication makes it more bearable.
The people who post here sometimes just amaze me with their impenetrable problems and inability to change the smallest of habits (which are generally only the result of their laziness and available funds). Convenience, like most things after all, is a matter of taste, perspective and genetic pre-disposition.
Plus one, though, for admitting the laziness and "more money than sense".
"Google needs to do a better job than a concentrated effort with Samsung to make a dent in Apple's bright future!"
Can't agree more. Samsung just sucks! They have no vision, no service, no quality products (and NO a nice screen isn't enough!), no proper after sale support. In fact after my Samsung Omnia SGH-i900 widnwos Mobile device (which they never upgraded to WM6.5 though the H/W was capable enough) misadventure NO more Samsung for me.
In fact when my mom's telly broke down I directed her towards an LG TV instead. Google is sleeping with the wrong partners. Period!
I have an Asus Transformer with bundled dock. Despite some quality problems (I've had to RMA it twice) it's an OK peice of kit. However the biggest problem is Android itself. Honeycomb was a rush job and it shows. Google even know this which is why there is no source code provided for Honeycomb. They have promised to open the source code for Icecream Sandwich when it arrives later this year. If and when they do that then perhaps we will see some movement as there is a thriving community of developers eager to get their mits on the source and by way of a rooted device this will allow for some interesting developments. Perhaps even innovative ideas will appear.
Google need to get ICS out ther and open the source code.
The other reason the iPad sells so well is because of *ACCESSORIES*
No other manufacturer has as many iThingies as Apple. Asus tried to pull an Apple with their own propietary (and very short) power + USB connector. This has left a bitter taste in many of their customers mouths as they have withheld the charger and connector from being purcahsed seperately (Possibly in order to try and shift more docking keyboards). In fact you still cannot buy the cable seperately and instead have to buy another charger in order to obtain a spare cable.
The sheer dearth of accessories for the Asus Transformer which is one the the better selling Android tablets is mind numbing. Compared to what Apple's third party sellers have out there it's a drop in the ocean.
You buy an iThingie for the whole ecosystem that goes with it. Not just for the item itself.
Until someone comes out with a Android tablet that is universally compatible with a wealth of iPad accessories (which will most likely result in being sued like the Tab) or is good enough to generate a multitude of third party addons of their own they will continue to fail.
I am looking at the camera connection kit right now.
Really, it just looks like an unecessary bit of nonsense that's just bound to get lost or forgotten about. It makes a lot more sense to build a better device to begin with. Doesn't matter if it's an Apple device or an Android.
If you need that "great ecosystem" then the design has failed.
It's far better just to have a proper USB port to begin with. Even "mom" can appreciate that.
. . . buy a notebook for the backpack or briefcase, I don't buy a phone for the case or charger plug, I don't buy a television for its . . . its . . . whatever you buy with televisions. I buy the item I intend to buy, at the right price and with the right features. If I want accessories, I buy the damn accessories, not an unnecessary money sinkhole. If you buy a piece of technology for its accessories, I submit that you not only bought the wrong technology, but you had no business having that much money to begin with.
A while ago the headline was that everybody wanted Tablets and not iPads. I guess the physical stock piles is the best indicator you can get.
This month I have moved 12 ardent Windows users over to Mac because they are over all the BS inherent with Windows. So far not a one has a complaint. Other than the migration learning curve. They gave me all their old laptops and notebooks, so I have been playing. Half of the units I blew up. Some as therapy, the others cuz they pissed me off. I can see why some people are willing to pay more and go Apple. I've been there since the mid-80's. So I already know.
Let me explain, I don't want an Ipad, don't get me wrong, I have no inbuilt prejudice against Apple products but an Ipad however you dress it up is.........a tablet, and to me the tablet format is cumbersome and awkward, yes, in certain circumstances it is useful but as a stand alone format, no thankyou.
I have been allowed to play with Ipads by their proud owners, posing with their style icons, I have played with other tablets as well, and all of them exhibit this cumbersome awkward nature.
Maybe it is me but when I have shown, even 'dyed in the wool' Apple afficionados my Asus TF101 Transformer their little eyes have lit up and retrieving the gadget has been a problem, those little grasping fingers holding on to it 'til the last microsecond.
The Asus Transformer is a far superior solution, yes it has problems but I wouldn't swap it for any mere tablet, now, let go!, I won't tell you again.
Like when people don't talk about photocopying but rather Xeroxing, and in the 80's when people didn't play videogames but played Nintendo. The iPad has reached that domination of penetration where the name iPad has become synonymous with tablets. It's hard to beat a product with THAT level of meme.
Best accessory yet, the Kensington KeyFolio bluetooth keyboard and case. Not cheap but the charge on it lasts ages. It's like a netbook but can work in portrait mode too.
I don't know about Android but I hope they sort out their BT HID stack. Still favour my N900 over the iPad. If Nokia took stock and looked at what people have done with their NITs, they could have had a good tablet instead of offering their netbook.
OK, I am a unix geek so am not scared of text based interfaces, etc,
but for me apple have got it exactly right. (although I do still use windows on the desktop)
What they have invested in is the user interface. And it looks great and feel great.
Why has Linux not penetraced the end user market. It does not have the UI that OSX and Win 7 has. It does not look as pretty. It might not matter to the small majority of geeks who value function over form but I like my desktop to look and feel nice. If apple can create a decent looking gui on top of unix, why can't the OS comminity do it.
Now lets look at the mobile market.
Again Apple have done a great job at making even the casing look nice. Just compare an average iPod to other MP3 players out there. Why have the likes of Sony not stepped up to the mark.
Then there is the iPad. Nice aluminium back, great screen and a nice looking UI.
All of the alternatives just look cheap and nasty. And Android is still very much a iOS look a like.
Been there, done that.
Not terribly impressed with what Apple has done. Certainly their GUI shell for Unix is nothing to write home about. A lot of this comes down to just cultural mythology and a lot of noisy fans. Apple kit becomes sort of a hazy unknown because of the stiff entry price.
So few people are in any position to say better. So the accounts get more and more skewed towards those with blinders.
The Windows 7 UI is also a bit of a step back. It's nothing to brag about really.
Although Apple does deserve kudos for knowing most times what information hide. Although this can also backfire horribly if you are the least bit creative with how you use their gear.
I have a HP touchpad and beside from the lack of APPS (most are BS anyway). The tablet is brilliant with the multitasking card system, flash support, and a lovely keyboard.
If buying get the HP case with it as it really completes the package.
Plus unlike other tablets the printing support is excellent, however I do not see why HP do not support all manufacturers PCL 5 printing over TCPIP that would be an ipad killer. Even allow scripting by enthusiasts of other vendor solutions, and make it a central part of the webOS forum creating a community around mass PCL5 printing support; give people freedom to create and the iPad would be in trouble; HP are you listening because time is ticking.
. . . it's this level of critical thinking and penetrating analysis that is only possible to come by through perusing the Reg readership. Thank you for not wasting more of my time by attempting to create any actually cogent sentence, reflecting actual thought.
+1 for the brevity of guano, -1 for making any comment at all. What do we have for our contestant, Johnny?
is he the one having an apple surgically removed from his butt ??
Paul, just because you dream of something doesn't make it so. The two people i know who got an iPad god bored of it within a month and hardly use it at all now. Apart from them, I don't know a anyone who owns a tablet of any kind, or wants one.
But there are a lot of vacuous, gullible people out there who will buy anything the TV sells them.
There are lots of uses!!!!
Work:
Yes it not designed for media/document creation, but I can go to a meeting without having to lug a laptop around so I can get/search emails at a drop of hat.
Quick googles for info, etc without being hidden behind a screen.
I can plug it into a projector if needed.
Use it on the train/bus to compose email replies or to create rudementry diagrams/flowcharts.
Whilst listening to music
Home.
Lounge around on the sofa whilst watching TV and surf/play Angry birds ;o) catch up on email (always makes a good impression replying to work emails out of hours).
Keeping kids quiet on long trips (have one of those cases that hangs on the back of the seat)
Yes you can do all of that with a netbook but the tablet is alot more user friendly.
You gotta love the work and commute scenarios: at work, use the device to fool around with email instead of focusing on what's being done in your meeting and getting your part of the job done right; bonus points for not bothering to try to hide your ADD tendencies from your bosses so they will know just where the deadwood is. Although maybe you're googling for your Ritalin order, so maybe I should give the benefit of the doubt. On the train, plug in every sense receptacle possible so you will not have to actually acknowledge or interact with your fellow man (or women). Yes, yes, I know they aren't really men (or women) because they don't have your toys or obviously heightened social skills, but I'm still going with that.
let's be honest, apple could produce a <insert generic item here> with an apple logo on it and a $600 dollar price tag, and people would buy it.
pandering press would laud it as the best <generic item> ever.
consumer rags would claim that Apple have unlocked another niche market with their new <generic item>, and how did we never think of <generic item> before? (Even though cheaper, and possibly more functional versions of <generic item> have been lurking in the dark unspoken corners of the world for the last 20 odd years).
Apple. got to hand it to them. their marketing system is now seemingly unstoppable with their brand presence in the minds of the <generic populous>
Larger, cos i'm having one.
Something in the 12-14 inch range, with a decent display, a built-in cell connect, a real keyboard, Flash support, a decent processor/memory/drive combination, and a price in the $600-$800US range.
But then again I'm guessing that rather like the unicorn, they don't exist.